Several hundred journalists covering a summit of the African Union in Maputo were seething Thursday after being barred from the conference venue and cut off from the heads of state and ministers.
When the three-day summit opened on Thursday morning, security men allowed the journalists into the precincts for just three minutes to record the beginning of a conference designed to revolutionise cooperation on the continent.
South African police brought in to ensure the security of the summit forced the journalists massed outside the press entrance to lay all their equipment on the ground, to be gone over by sniffer dogs.
Once the official opening ceremony was over, the conference centre, financed by China and built especially for the summit, was sealed off to the journalists. They were parked in a press centre in another building from where they were unable to follow what the heads of state and government were doing.
Many camped outside the press entrance to the conference centre in hope of the ban being relaxed, but in vain. ”We can’t work. Do the Mozambicans know how much we paid to come here?” groused one journalist from the Republic of Congo.
When AFP journalists asked why entry was forbidden, an official replied: ”We are the host country and we do what we want. We don’t have to be told our duties by you.”
The Mozambican government may be impeding the journalists’ work, but it is offering them a tourist jaunt around Maputo on Sunday, after the summit ends. – Sapa-AFP